Woman Makes ‘Mom Resume’ To Highlight Why Motherhood Is A Full-Time Job
Whether you're a stay-at-home parent or one who works full-time, we can all agree that parenting is a tough job, right? No one teaches you how to be a good parent or tells you all the skills you need to learn beforehand; you just have to learn on the fly and hope for the best.
After seeing how the 2020 pandemic affected working women—especially mothers—one woman shared her resume on social media. It wasn't just her normal CV, though! It was only the skills she'd learned as a new mother.
Women Are More Affected By The Pandemic Than Men
The Center for American Progress reported that in 2020, four times as many women as men dropped out of the labor force in the United States.
With schools being closed and childcare facilities operating at limited capacity, reduced hours, or not at all, working mothers were relied on to be the primary source of care for their families.
Sydney Williams Didn't Like The Statistics
Seeing statistics like those, working mother-of-two Sydney Williams started her own exercise to show the importance of mothers and the value you get from motherhood.
Sydney shared her "mom resume" to LinkedIn, highlighting only the skills that she gained from real-world experience as a mother.
"About Me"
Sydney has two boys, aged 2 and 6 months old.
She wrote on her resume that "most days, I don't have a clue what I'm doing," which is a feeling many parents can relate to.
It's All For The People Around Her
She focuses on starting each morning with a new sense of optimism and operates at the highest level of energy and creativity, "so that the people around me feel safe, valued, and inspired."
It's all about maintaining the right environment for her boys, regardless of how she's feeling.
Motherhood Is A Full-Time Job
For decades, there have been debates about whether a stay-at-home mom works as hard as a mother who works full-time, or whether staying at home with the kids is as important as being the breadwinner.
There doesn't need to be a debate about it, though, because it's not a competition. Whether you're a mom who works full-time in an office or who is at home 24/7, your life is still hard!
The Skills She's Learned
A few of the skills that she lists include: "I do everything you do, but I do it with one hand," "I maintain positivity, while my patience is pushed to the limit," and "I think 10 steps ahead."
One of the major skills that she also lists on her mom resume is that she's able to adapt: "I take whatever life (or my 2-year-old) throws at me and adapt to be the leader that's needed."
A Mom Wears Many Hats
Something that is often overlooked is just how many different things a mom is to her children.
Sydney writes that her past roles while being a mom include (but are not limited to): teacher, chef, nurse, barber, garbage woman, builder, driver, hostage negotiator, seamstress, engineer, translator, swim instructor, and therapist.
Arguably The Most Important Skill Yet
Potentially the most important thing to note is the skill that Sydney lists last on her resume:
"I do it all with very little 'Thank You' and wake up each morning to do it again because of my capacity to find the joy and love in my work."
It's About Highlighting Reality
This resume isn't about complaining that motherhood is difficult for her and too challenging for moms in general. It's just about highlighting all that they do on a regular basis.
Just because the skills you learn as a mother are not directly applicable to the workplace doesn't mean that they aren't still valuable.
Something's Gotta Give
Sydney notes in her post that "something is fundamentally, catastrophically broken" if we continue to let women leave the workforce in such large numbers.
Something has to change in order for moms to "have a fighting chance," and we should all care about finding a solution to this issue.
